E-commerce heavyweight Chris Lentjes joins Eurora to drive the US expansion

Chris joins Eurora from Pitney Bowes, a US global shipping and mailing company that provides technology, logistics, and financial services to more than 90 percent of the Fortune 500 companies. He brings over 20 years of digital and physical e-commerce logistics experience in the US to our company.

Chris’ first tasks as CEO of Eurora’s US operations will be the establishment of a central US office in Miami and building a best-in-class expert team to drive the roll-out of Eurora’s operations in the US. “Eurora is in a unique position to simplify Cross Border Commerce within Trade Compliance and Customs and capitalize on eCommerce digital transformation,” said Chris. “We have a great opportunity in front of us and the time is now for the growth of Eurora.”

The appointment of Chris follows Eurora’s successful US$40 million Series A funding round. The funds will be used for product development, potential add-on acquisitions, and geographical expansion in the UK, the Middle East, and the US, where we will see rapid growth in our sectors.

Earlier this year, Anneli Aljas, the former VP of Finance at ride-hailing unicorn Bolt, joined as Global Chief Financial Officer to head Eurora’s expansion and growth.

More about Chris Lentjes

Chris is originally from Sydney, Australia and moved to the US in 2004 with his wife, residing in Florida.

Chris’s career has always been focused on Supply Chain and Logistics. Back in Australia, he began with TNT, experiencing Domestic Road and Express Airfreight. He also built a successful start-up focused on human resources within Supply Chain. In the US, he worked in senior roles at DHL and Pitney Bowes. These roles helped him build an impressive eCommerce expertise: “I extended my experience to encompass global eCommerce and all facets associated with product & service management from securing the merchant order to cash management and a lot in between.”

Chris’s overall experiences taught him a lot about the eCommerce industry. Ecommerce is rapidly growing, and as internet usage increases, global trade will keep growing, whether that be B2C, B2B, C2C, or even M2C (manufacturer to Consumer). “The eCommerce space continues to innovate and move to digital solutions that drive up efficiency and drive down costs in a market that is continuously becoming more competitive for retailers and supporting business.”

Eurora’s operations in the United States

Chris’ first tasks as CEO of Eurora’s US operations will be the establishment of a central US office in Miami and the building of a best-in-class expert team to drive the roll-out of Eurora’s US operations.

He gave more details on the main goal Eurora wants to achieve in the US: “We are highly focused on establishing Eurora in the US and Canada and driving company growth, brand awareness and to be the trusted partner for Cross Border Trade Compliance.”

To achieve this goal, Chris has already set 3 key KPIs for the next 1 to 3 months:

1. Establish Eurora’s presence in the US market with marketing and branding opportunities;
2. Secure key resources for roles within Eurora US;
3. Begin to onboard customers.

Chris’s personality and interests will also be an asset to leading his team toward success: “Keeping fit mentally and physically is important. I enjoy Mountain biking and occasionally race single and multi-day events. It’s definitely a stress reliever.” His strong family values will help him as well in his role. “Family is also important and spending time supporting the family in sporting endeavors or travel is important.”

Eurora’s platform

Eurora’s platform assigns e-commerce products an appropriate HS (Harmonized System) code, calculates the applicable sales taxes and duty amounts, and automatically creates electronic declarations for duties and taxes via simple API integration.

The B2B platform, which can be used by online sellers, marketplaces, logistics, and postal companies, as well as tax and customs authorities, can automatically process 5,000 requests per second with up to 98% accuracy, the highest level of accuracy, speed, and automation available on the market. It also operates at a fraction of the time and price of hybrid or manual code allocation solutions commonly used today.

In addition, in 2022 Eurora is also opening a Scientific Research & Innovation Center in Tartu, Estonia, as well as an Engineering Hub in Dubai, and a Central UK office in London.